Our first morning at H Blue hotel was a pleasant surprise. The room included free breakfast in the rooftop Skyroom Lounge.
We didn't really know what to expect but we were happy to see fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, muffins, bagels and cold cereal with milk and several flavors of juice.
Then we headed out to explore.
La Paz is a large metropolitan city that is the capitol of Baja California Sur (South).
We walked around the downtown area and found many interesting tourist type stores and also lots of stores that the local residents shop at.
We went into the Municipal Market to see what that was all about.
It was filled with locals doing their shopping. It was set up sort of like a swap meet with small booths that sold certain items.
There was a booth selling purses, one selling Levi's, shoes were in abundance and then at the other end of the market was the grocery department with lots of additional booths and stalls.
They had lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.
There was a wide selection of seafood in several stalls that included all types of fish, shellfish, shrimp, crab, octopus and squid.
The meat section had typical glass fronted meat display areas with stacks of various types of steaks, ground meats, and sausages on display.
They also had a specialty department.
You could pick up a fresh hoof or two as well as all of the tripe you might need.
If you were going to have a special get together, they had other delicacies.
How about a nice pigs head or some pigs legs with the tasty pigs feet still attached?
That pretty much ended Suzie's urge to shop for a while and we decided to head out to the beach.
We walked back to the hotel and got the car and headed out. There is a very popular beach located a few miles out of town and that is where we headed.
As we drove out of the downtown area, we found that there were lots of condo or apartment type buildings built up along the beach area. They looked like tourist type facilities.
We also saw lots of desert and interesting rock formations.
The drive to the beach took us past a large busy commercial harbor that served as an import point for many of the supplies needed by the large population of southern Baja.
There was a steady stream of trucks pulling cargo containers from the port, heading out to the nearby cities and towns.
This port also served as a terminal for ferry service to Guaymas and Mazatlan on the mainland of Mexico.
The beach was located a mile past the harbor and was beautiful. The water was chilly and it was a windy day so we didn't even think about going into the water but it looked very inviting.
The beach is protected from the north wind by a rocky point.
Out past the rocky point the wind was whipping up some pretty good surf.
Everywhere we walked was another beautiful scene.
When we went back to town, we spent several nice afternoons walking through the downtown area. There were lots of the regular tourist type stores with t-shirts and other touristy junk.
We also found some interesting sights.
As we were walking down the sidewalk, a man was in front of an arched doorway sweeping. He asked us if we were looking for a hotel. We said we already had a hotel but he said it wasn't anything like his hotel and invited us to walk around the patio area which we did.
The reason that we did was because he had seen us admiring a statue in front of his archway and told us that if we thought it was interesting then we would like what we would find inside.
The statue we were admiring was a life size horse made out of palm fronds. It must have been made by a very patient and creative individual.
Then we went into the patio area.
There were interesting things hanging on every available space outside of each of the rooms.
Yes . . . . . . . . . this is a dried monkey! ! !
We stayed in La Paz for several days and in the next chapter, we will take you to some outlying villages.
Some of you have asked about forwarding our blog on to friends or family who might be interested.
We hope you will share this with anyone you think might find it interesting, and any feedback is greatly appreciated.
Be sure to remind them that there is a Blog Archive listed right under our picture at the top of the page that will take them back to past chapters of the blog.
More to come soon,
Tom & Suzie
After one night in Loreto, it was time to continue South. It started out quite overcast but the clouds soon started to thin and it turned into a beautiful day.
The trucks, when we encountered them, always seemed to be going as fast as possible, all of the time.
Here we have a gasoline tanker passing a propane tanker in an area where the curves are so dangerous that they painted distinctive lines on the pavement and installed small topes (speed bumps) to get your attention and make you slow down.
Right after the passing maneuver, we came upon this, at the curve we were being warned about.
The blue trailer had been traveling the opposite direction from us but is a good example of what they were warning us about. The gasoline tanker is already past and long gone. The truck tractor that had been pulling the blue trailer was already righted and was on the hook of a big tow truck.
The further South we got, the more road construction we encountered. They are really working hard on widening the road and building bridges to span the vados (dips & gullies).
This picture shows the completed widening of the northbound lane and the massive amount of work still to be done to build up the roadbed for the southbound lane.
Lots of beautiful scenery.
Big whale tail statue at entrance to La Paz. There is a big Walmart located in the shopping center right behind the statue.
La Paz has nice wide, paved streets, with lots of traffic.
I have made a point of mentioning how much our hotel rooms were costing along the way.
As you learned from earlier chapters of this Blog, we had to live in hotels in the U.S. for over a month while our motorhome was being repaired.
We started out staying in the most inexpensive motels we could find and quickly found out that a $50.00 room wasn't going to be located in a location that we felt safe and was usually so poorly maintained that we felt we just couldn't continue to stay there.
During this time period, we discovered that if you booked a room on line, you could frequently get a nicer room at a lower price than if you just walk into the lobby and check in. We started using Hotels.com and that seemed to make finding a comfortable and relatively inexpensive hotel easier.
The next problem we encountered when using Hotels.com was that if you booked what looked like a nice room for several days and then moved in and found that you didn't like the hotel after all, you could not check out early and get a refund for your unused nights.
We had this happen to us a couple of times before we wised up and just started booking for one night and then if we liked it, we would sign up for more nights.
As we headed for Mexico, we tried to make reservations with Hotels.com but found that they did not have any listings for the smaller towns that we initially stayed at.
Those are the hotels I have been telling you about in the $25.00 per night range.
Also, prior to entering Mexico, we checked with Verizon to see if our cell phones would work in Baja and how much it would cost. Verizon told us that because of the service plan we have, our cell phones and data plans would work in Baja at no extra charge.
That information allowed us to use our cell phones and wifi hotspot to access the internet and check with Hotels.com about the next night's destination.
The night before we got to La Paz, we went on line and found out that there were several hotels in La Paz that would allow you to book through Hotels.com
Then, it was a guessing game as to which hotel to book. The pictures always make the places look great and it isn't until you get there and check in that you find out the rest of the story.
After looking over the choices and reading numerous reviews, we decided to try "H Blue" hotel. It was kind of a weird name but the pictures looked nice.
We hit a home run with this one!!
It was located within walking distance of the downtown area in an old, run down looking residential area and as we drove up, we weren't really sure if we should even stop.
There was no where to park on the street and the tall, skinny hotel did not seem to have a parking area. When we got right in front of the building, we saw a narrow driveway that led to the base of the hotel which had 10 parking spaces.
We got the last parking space and went into the lobby to check in.
The clerk at the front counter spoke a little English and with our little Spanish and our on-line reservation in her computer, the check in went smoothly and our on-line payment of $51.00 U.S. (the most we had paid in Mexico so far) got us our key card to unlock the room and we were all set.
Then, we asked a few questions about things to see within walking distance and that quickly reached the limit of the clerk's English.
As we were struggling to communicate, a man came out from a back office and introduced himself as Raul and said in very good English that he was the manager of the hotel and would be happy to help us.
Raul then provided us with a map and a very short and informative lecture about the local sights.
He then led us up to our room which was on the 5th floor of the 7 story hotel. On our way, he told us that the hotel had just recently opened and was still under construction so the elevator to the 5th floor didn't work yet. Uh-oh.
This part of the story has a happy ending because there was an elevator that would take us to the roof which was the 7th floor. Then we could walk through the lounge located on the roof, past the pool, and onto a stairway that would take us down to the 5th floor where our room was located.
They did have a room available on a floor accessible by the elevator that did work but it had 2 queen size beds and we decided to take the room with a king size bed which required hiking the stairs.
As we were descending past the 6th floor, we saw numerous workmen putting the finishing touches on all of the rooms on that floor. They were cutting and laying elaborate tile work.
As we continued the descent to the 5th floor, Raul told us that the elevator to our floor should be completed in a day or two and we wondered if that meant U.S. time (a day or two) or Mexican time (who knows).
Here is a picture of a portion of the parking lot from the stairway landing on the 5th floor near our room.
When we got to the room, Raul showed us how the key card to the room worked. First, you hold the card up next to the door knob and the proximity of the card to the lock quickly unlocks the door.
This worked well and was a pleasant change from some of the key cards we had in the U.S. where they only seemed to work half of the time and the other half required a return to the front desk to get the card reprogrammed.
Once the door was unlocked, we entered into a very dark room. Raul then showed us a slot just inside the door where we were to insert the key card.
When we slid the keycard into the slot, it magically turned on the lights. Raul explained that the entire hotel was on an energy saving program and the room key was part of that program.
Every day, when we would leave the room, we had to pull the key card out of the slot and take it with us. This automatically turned off the power in the room and prevented guests from leaving the room with every light in the place burning all day while they were gone.
Once the lights were on, we could see that we had chosen the right hotel and that we had just gotten the best $51.00 hotel room we had ever imagined.
Of course, everything was brand new and this was a deluxe room.
It had the biggest king size bed we had ever seen.
The bathroom was very nice.
The shower was huge.
The TV even had a lot of English speaking channels.
After checking out the room, we took off on foot to explore the downtown area and decide if there was enough to see here to warrant a second nights stay at the hotel.
Our first stop was the Malecon (waterfront). It was a beautiful, wide5 tiled and cobblestoned walkway that went for over a mile as it followed the curving harbor.
Black tipped pearl oysters were native to this area and are now cultivated here for their pearls and are celebrated with this statue.
We stopped along the Malecon for another selfie. I still have a little more work to do on this if I ever want to actually get both of us at the same time.
We eventually returned to the hotel to make arrangements for additional nights because we saw that there was a lot to see in La Paz.
When we got to the office, we learned that if you extend your stay at the front counter, the rate was close to $100.00 U.S. per night.
The clerk suggested we book on line again and that sounded like a good idea.
We took our laptop up to the pool area on the roof and used the fast hotel wifi to connect with Hotels.com again and add some nights. Again, it was $51.00 per night including all taxes and fees.
While I was booking the room, Suzie had an opportunity to take a few pictures of the pool area.
As you can see in the background, La Paz is a large metropolitan city that spreads over many miles, and has a population of over 250,000 people.
We hope we found another indication that the hotel wasn't quite finished. As you exit the glassed-in sky lounge area and walk toward the pool area, you pass the restrooms.
We hope that they will soon be adding those extra luxuries we have come to expect like doors and toilet paper holders but we aren't sure they will. This looks pretty finished.
We hung out on the roof to watch the sunset.
It was spectacular.
After watching the sunset, it was time for dinner. There was a small, mom and pop outdoor restaurant directly across the street from the hotel and the restaurant was just a small tent canopy and a couple of tables set up in the front yard of the restaurant owners house.
We figured we would check it out and we were glad we did.
We haven't been missing any meals on this trip and we both thought we might need to cut back a bit so we ordered just one chicken fajita and this is what we got.
You can't see the big pile of steaming, hot, fresh home made tortillas that came with this huge pile of chicken. We were really glad we decided to split our dinner.
After dinner, we staggered back across the street to our hotel and could see why they called it Hotel Blue.
Then we hit the sack after a really nice day.
.
The next day, we headed out early to explore more of the town and surrounding area. I say early because we discovered that the Mexican work force starts sawing tiles on the 6th floor around 7 am.
The noise wasn't too bad and the hotel was sooo nice that it just didn't matter.
We will tell you more about La Paz and surroundings soon.
Get out there and look at stuff, it is just amazing!!
Tom & Suzie
